Villar: Multitasking Senate committed to pass more bills amid NBN probe

Senate President Manny Villar said that the Senate's passage of its priority legislation stays on course even as it pursues the investigation of the national broadband network deal.

Villar said, "Our focus remains fixed on the passage of priority legislation that will benefit our common people. This is simultaneous with our current investigation on the ZTE-NBN deal aimed at ferreting out the truth in adherence to our check-and-balance function under the Constitution."

"As a multitasking body, we have already passed 21 bills and look forward to the approval of more measures in our lineup of priority," the Senate president and Nacionalista Party president said.

Villar maintained that the long hours put in by the Senate on the ZTE-NBN hearing are not a waste of time and vital in the process of gathering sufficient information.

The Senate has passed 21 bills since the opening of the 14th Congress First Regular Session, including eight of nine priority legislation identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.

The achievement on the part of the Senate is record-setting since the chamber is not usually able to pass measures during the First Regular Session.

Since the resumption of session this year, the Upper Chamber has passed three bills: banning the reappointment of a regular member of the Judicial and Bar Council who has already served his full term; bill decriminalizing vagrancy; and increasing the additional benefits of World War II veterans from P1,500 to P5,000. These bring to 21 the number of bills passed by the Senate since the opening of the 14th Congress.